Cinema of Australia

Cinema of Australia
List of Australian films
1896-1919
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

The cinema of Australia has a long history of indepedent films. It has produced internationally-recognised films, actors and filmmakers.

History

Australia's film history has been characterised as one of 'boom and bust' due to the unstable and cyclical nature of its industry; there have been deep troughs when few films were made for decades and high peaks when a glut of films reached the market.^[1]

Australian film has a long history. Indeed, the earliest known feature length narrative film in the world was the Australian production The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906).

Ned Kelly depicted in the first ever feature-length narrative film

Arguably one of the world's first film studios, The Limelight Department was operated by The Salvation Army in Melbourne, Australia, between 1897 and 1910. The Limelight Department produced evangelical material for use by the Salvation Army, as well as private and government contracts. In its 19 years of operation, the Limelight Department produced about 300 films of various lengths, making it the largest film producer of its time. The major innovation of the Limelight Department would come in 1899 when Herbert Booth and Joseph Perry began work on Soldiers of the Cross, arguably the first feature length film ever produced. Soldiers of the Cross fortified the Limelight Department as a major player in the early film industry. However, Soldier of the Cross would be dwarfed when the Limelight Department was commissioned to film the Federation of Australia.

The boom of the 1910s

The old Pacific Cinema at Bulahdelah, NSW, a classic example of an early small country town cinema.

The first "boom" in Australian film occurred in the 1910s. After beginning slowly in the years from 1900, 1910 saw 4 narrative films released, then 51 in 1911, 30 in 1912, and 17 in 1913, and back to 4 in 1914, the beginning of World War I.^[2] While these numbers may seem small, Australia was one of the most prolific film-producing countries at the time. That is, between 1910 and 1912, almost 90 narrative films were made; between 1906 and 1928, 150 narrative feature films were made.^[3]

There are various explanations for the subsequent demise of the industry; some historians have pointed to falling audience numbers, a lack of interest in Australian product and narratives, and the decision to participate in World War I. However, a major reason lay in the official banning of bushranger films in 1912.^[4] Looking for alternative products, Australian cinema chains realised that Australian films were much more expensive than imported films from the United States, which could be purchased cheaply as production expenses had already been recouped. To redress this decline, the federal government imposed a tax on imported film in 1914, but this was removed by 1918. By 1923, U.S. films dominated the Australian exhibition sector, with 94% of all films coming from that country.^[5]

Another explanation is concerned with anti-competitive behavior between film distributors and cinemas. Between 1906 and 1912 Australia's burgeoning film industry produced more feature-length films than Britain or the USA, but in 1912 Australasian Films and Union Theaters established a monopoly over production, distribution and exhibition and shut out smaller producers. That opened the way for US distributors in the 1920s to sign exclusive deals with Australian cinemas to exhibit only their products, thereby crippling the local film industry ^[6].

The boom of the 1970s and 1980s

During the 1970s, government funding for Australian filmmakers was increased. The South Australian Film Corporation was established in 1972 to promote and produce films, while the Australian Film Commission was created in 1975 to fund and produce internationally competitive films.[1] A generation of directors and actors emerged who told distinctively Australian stories. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) and Sunday Too Far Away (Ken Hannam, 1975) made an impact on the international arena. The 1970s and 80s are regarded by many as a 'golden age' of Australian cinema, with many successful films, from the dark science fiction of Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) to the romantic comedy of Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman, 1986), a film that defined Australia in the eyes of many foreigners despite having little to do with the lifestyle of most Australians.

The industry today

The Australian film industry continues to produce a reasonable number of films each year,^{[citation needed]} but in common with other English-speaking countries, Australia has often found it difficult to compete in a marketplace dominated by American product. The most successful actors and film-makers are easily lured by Hollywood and rarely return to the domestic film industry.

After Rupert Murdoch, the head of Fox Studios and an Australian, saw the new Fox studios were moved to Sydney, some US producers have chosen to film at Fox's state of the art facilities as production costs in Sydney are well below US costs. Studios established in Australia, like Fox Studios Australia and Warner Roadshow Studios, host large international productions like The Matrix and Star Wars II and III.

Government support

The Federal Australian government had supported the Australian film industry through the funding and development agencies of Film Finance Corporation Australia, the Australian Film Commission and Film Australia. In 2008 the three agencies were consolidated into Screen Australia.

A recurring debate in the Australian film industry revolves around the necessity or otherwise of government support for the industry. In brief, the argument for government support maintains that a viable film industry is only possible if it is supported in some way by the government and proponents of this view hold that the industry cannot compete against the hegemony of Hollywood. The argument against government support is that the industry is viable without support and will become stronger if increasingly globalised market forces are allowed full and untrammeled play. Others argue that a film industry in itself has little value. The history of the industry in Australia is to some extent a result of the ascendancy of one position over the other.

Australian exports

The Australian film industry has produced a number of successful actors and directors, some of whom have moved on to Hollywood.

These include actors and actresses Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Bryan Brown, Emily Browning, Rose Byrne, Toni Collette, Abbie Cornish,Russell Crowe, Judy Davis, Errol Flynn, Mel Gibson, Rachel Griffiths, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Hogan, Barry Humphries, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Anthony LaPaglia, Heath Ledger, Olivia Newton-John, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush, Jesse Spencer, Yvonne Strahovski, Magda Szubanski, Naomi Watts, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham. Directors Mario Andreacchio, Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, Rolf de Heer, James McTeigue, George Miller, Phillip Noyce, Alex Proyas, and Peter Weir and associated production experts.

See also

• Screen Australia
• Australian Film Commission
• Film Australia
• South Australian Film Corporation
• List of Australian films
• List of films set in Australia
• List of movies filmed in Melbourne
• World cinema

References

Literature

Encyclopedia and Reference

• Murray, Scott, ed. Australian Film: 1978 – 1994. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-553777-7
• Pike, Andrew and Ross Cooper. Australian Film: 1900 – 1977. revised ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-550784-3
• McFarland, Brian, Geoff Mayer and Ina Bertrand, eds. The Oxford Companion to Australian Film. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-553797-1
• Moran, Albert and Errol Vieth. Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8108-5459-7
• Reade, Eric. Australian Silent Films: A Pictorial History of Silent Films from 1896 to 1926. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1970.
• Verhoeven, Deb, ed. Twin Peeks: Australian and New Zealand Feature Films. Melbourne: Damned Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-876310-00-6

Critique and Commentary

• Collins, Felicity, and Theresa Davis. Australian Cinema After Mabo. Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Dawson, Jonathan, and Bruce Molloy, eds. Queensland Images in Film and Television. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1990.
• Dermody, Susan and Elizabeth Jacka, eds. The Screening of Australia, Volume 1: Anatomy of a Film Industry. Sydney: Currency Press, 1987.
• — — — . The Screening of Australia, Volume 2: Anatomy of a National Cinema. Sydney: Currency Press, 1988.
• Moran, Albert and Tom O’Regan, eds. An Australian Film Reader (Australian Screen Series). Sydney: Currency Press, 1985.
• Moran, Albert and Errol Vieth. Film in Australia: An Introduction Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• O'Regan, Tom. Australian National Cinema. London: Routledge, 1996.
• Stratton, David. The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry. Sydney : Pan Macmillan, 1990. 465p. ISBN 0-7329-0250-9
• Verhoeven, Deb. Sheep and the Australian Cinema. Melbourne : MUP, 2006. ISBN 0-522-85239-4

External links

Commonwealth and State Government Sites

• australianscreen
• Screen Australia
• National Film and Sound Archive homepage
• Australian Government site on Film in Australia
• Pacific Film and Television Corporation (Queensland)
• New South Wales Film and Television Office
• Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Victoria)
• South Australia Film Corporation
• Filmwest (Western Australia)
• Australian Film, Television and Radio School

Non-government sites

• film.org.au: the best of Australian Films
• Internet Movie Database, Australia
• TV Cream on Australian films

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